Standard Meta Report #16 - December 22, 2019 - December 29, 2019

Welcome to another edition of the Standard Meta Report, this time covering the week between December 22nd and 29th, 2019. As always, the report is based on an analysis of statistics from HSReplay, along with personal game experience at high ranks. 

The Overview

With Galakrond Shaman chastened by a trio of timely nerfs, the Standard meta has finally been allowed room to breath. The format seems to shift on a daily basis, as counters, then counters to counters, emerge to vie for contention between ranks five and Legend. 

A little more than a week ago, it seemed all but certain that Galakrond Shaman, Deathrattle Rogue and Face Hunter would come to dominate the format for a matter of months, constituting a vicious circle of counters and counter-counters. Deathrattle Rogue fed on Shaman. Face Hunter fed on Rogue. And Galakrond Shaman fed on everything else. 

Praise Galakrond, things have changed. With most players scared away from Shaman, Rogue and Warrior have risen to the top of the heap, but neither, as of yet, feel oppressive. Today, we can still observe diverse lifeforms, both refined and not, a living, breathing ecology of archetypes in continual transition. It’s beautiful. 

After nearly pushing Deathrattle Rogue out of the meta, Face Hunter continues to prey on slower builds without healing, but has been brought into check by a resurgence in Quest Resurrect Priest. Meanwhile, Priest has found a counter in the explosive emergence of Highlander Galakrond Rogue, a versatile deck with extreme power spikes, but one weak to aggro strategies. Undergoing a significant period of optimization, Galakrond Warrior is rising in strength across the upper meta, challenging Rogue for dominance at Legend. 

On a superficial level, Team 5’s nerfs appear to have been remarkably effective, allowing a swarm of viable meta builds, most notably Galakrond Warrior and Highlander Galakrond Rogue, to rise from Thrall’s ashes and take prominent places in the meta. But the Standard meta’s dirty little secret is that Galakrond Shaman may well remain the most powerful deck in the format. 

Only time will tell if the leviathan returns in full force. 

Druid

Even though none of the class’ archetypes appear to be doing well, it’s far too early to sound the death knell for Druid. For one thing, most players are taking Embiggen Druid in the wrong direction. It was always going to be slow, but it need not be so slow. 

We have a feeling Embiggen Druid is far from optimization, but in the early days, most players seem to be leaning into the late-game orientation of the concept, padding out their lists with huge value bombs like Ysera, Unleashed and Crowd Roaster. 

The best-performing list isn’t like that at all; it eschews the bombs in place of early game fodder, namely Vicious Scalehide (for much-needed survivability) and Nightmare Amalgam (which opens up space for a sweet Mech package featuring SN1P-SN4P, another card that gladly accepts buffs). 

This is a pretty fast meta, so our Embiggen Druid has to be nimble to keep up. Ideally, the archetype should be modeled after a tempo deck, as Rogue was in the days of Prince Keleseth. Think about it - we already know how to deal with deck-wide buffs. Instead of clogging our hand with spells like Strength in Numbers or BEEEES!!!, our deck should be filled with minions that scale exponentially with buffs. 

Our featured list benefits from the gentle curve of a midrange deck, operating on the principle that just about any minion can be made a late-game threat with the help of Embiggen. After taking the board with your overwhelming tempo, you can seal the deal with a well-timed Savage Roar. 

Now, it’s time to talk about Treant Druid, an archetype that received significant support in the latest expansion. Good support, as it turns out. Aeroponics, in particular, is a hell of a card for a deck that needs to run faster than everyone else. Treenforcements is the perfect turn 1 play (especially followed by a Dendrologist), and Goru the Mightree has proved significant in both tempo and control matchups. 

Statistics on Treant Druid are difficult to parse because there are so many sub-optimal builds on the ladder, but the best of these lists appears to have separated itself from the pack. Thankfully, it looks as you’d expect it to, clean and lean, without the excessive flourishes of Embiggen or Faceless Corruptor. 

While Treant Druid’s playrate is lower than we’d like for analysis, our featured list boasts an average winrate of 54.9% between ranks five and Legend over the past week. Preliminary numbers show strong results against Face Hunter, Quest Resurrect Priest, Highlander Galakrond Rogue, Galakrond Shaman and Galakrond Warrior. This is one to watch, folks. 

Hunter

It would be fair to say that the meta warped around Face Hunter, as it warped around Galakrond Shaman and Deathrattle Rogue. The rise of Hunter as a natural counter to Valeera has now led to the resurgence of Quest Resurrect Priest, along with the emergence of Galakrond Warrior, both of which act as natural counters to Face Hunter. 

So while Face Hunter remains the deck of choice for the lower meta, the archetype’s time in the sun may soon be up. The most popular deck at ranks five and four, Face Hunter must now withstand significant pressure from Priest, whose healing options serve as a powerful check on all-face strategies. Quest Resurrect Priest smashes Face Hunter about 80% of the time; the deck’s surging popularity between five and one is terrible news for Rexxar. 

Also rising in playrate throughout the lower meta, Tempo Galakrond Warrior has emerged as another substantial impediment to Rexxar’s dominance. Outside of a Platebreaker tech, Hunter has no way to mitigate the prodigious armor gain available to Garrosh. 

But so long as Rogue is hampered by a lack of healing, there will always be opportunities for Hunter to flourish. Nowhere is this more true than at Legend, where Face Hunter has found a viable position as a quasi-counter to Highlander Galakrond Rogue, the deck of the moment at higher ranks. Valeera’s Highlander list currently accounts for 18% of the Legend meta; over the course of 4,000 games, Hunter wins the matchup in about 55.4% of cases. That’s not an overwhelming margin, but given the ubiquity of Rogue, its enough for Face Hunter to stake out a claim. 

After emerging as a potential counter to Galakrond Shaman, Quest Hunter was smacked back into reality by the explosive popularity of Deathrattle Rogue and Face Hunter, both of which proved to be poor matchups. Today, the scene appears a bit more promising, especially considering the additions of Diving Gryphon, [Hearthstone Card (Shu’ma) Not Found], Faceless Corruptor and Veranus; Quest Hunter’s playrate is beginning to respond. In particular, Highlander Galakrond Rogue is a welcome sight; Rexxar outshines Valeera in about 54% of matches (over a sample of 2,800 games played between ranks five and Legend). 

Although their playrate is too low to evaluate, the various experiments with a Dragon-based Hunter archetype don’t seem to be panning out. Highlander builds appear most promising, but have not yet managed to distinguish themselves in a space dominated by the standard Secret Highlander Hunter list, which itself maintains a playrate around 2% between five and Legend. 

Of non-Highlander decks, a Dragon Hunter modeled after Face Hunter has delivered the best initial results, but it’s still worse than Face Hunter. 

Mage

In Descent of Dragons, Highlander Mage received a suite of powerful new tools in the form of Dragoncaster, Malygos, Aspect of Magic and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. The strength of each play is undeniable, but thus far, circumstances have not aligned properly for Jaina’s triumphant return to the meta. 

First came Galakrond Shaman, a poor matchup, one Mage loses about 58% of the time. Then came Deathrattle Rogue, another poor matchup; Mage loses this one 45% of the time. Finally, we saw the rise of Face Hunter, which proved the worst matchup of them all; Hunter absolutely dumpstered Highlander Mage, winning out over Jaina in about 73% of cases. 

Things have looked a bit better over the past week, but we aren’t sanguine about Jaina’s chances going forward. While it’s true that the rise of Quest Resurrect Priest has provided Mage a strong winning matchup, Highlander Galakrond Rogue and Galakrond Warrior are going to be tough competition. You can only freeze a board so many times; both Valeera and Garrosh have the late-game wherewithal to tear down Jaina’s defenses and go for the throat. As it stands, Highlander Mage is a Tier 3 deck with all the tools of a Tier 1 powerhouse. 

Turns out Chenvaala and a new Giant aren’t enough to make Cyclone Mage viable. Skill-testing though it may be, it looks like the sun is setting on this archetype. Player interest is at an all-time low, and the best-performing list doesn’t even crack a winrate of 48%. 

What has been termed Khadgar Mage, a Dragon-based midrange deck exploiting [Hearthstone Card (Conjurer’s Calling) Not Found], seems dead on arrival, but we’ll post it here anyway so you can improve the statistical base. 

Paladin

At the moment, Pure Paladin appears to be a failure, but with no support beyond Lightforged Zealot and Lightforged Crusader, that’s not terribly surprising. Though Zealot is a terrific card, these meager payoffs have proved insufficient to carry the archetype to success. At best, Pure Paladin is a Tier 3 deck, and people have already stopped fooling around with it.

In truth, Pure Paladin is an archetype in search of an identity. The formula, of course, is obvious enough - only class cards can be included. In light of Paladin’s class identity, most players have opted for a midrange build with plentiful buffs. After all, that’s what Paladin is good at, and Pure Paladin is nothing if not bound to Paladin’s class identity. 

But given the power level of Descent of Dragons, Paladin’s class identity doesn’t seem particularly strong. When Galakrond Shaman is throwing down two 8/8 rushers on turn 7, [Hearthstone Card (Pharaoh’s Blessing) Not Found] starts to look decidedly underpowered.

We’re featuring the most promising build, which stays away from slow, value-oriented plays (Glowstone Technician, I’m looking at you) and leans into healing with Bronze Explorer and Crystalsmith Kangor. Those are certainly handy tools in a lower meta rife with Face Hunters, but we doubt the current build has the wherewithal to stick it out against Highlander Galakrond Rogue and Galakrond Warrior.  

When you dig into the numbers, almost everything good about Pure Paladin (outside of Lightforged Zealot) comes from the Mech package. That’s why it shouldn’t be surprising that the best Paladin deck to emerge from Descent of Dragons, Mech Paladin, makes use of the class’ considerable existing Mech synergies, along with newcomers in Sky Claw, Goboglide Tech and Gyrocopter. 

In the aftermath of the nerfs, and despite a fairly low rate of play, Mech Paladin has emerged as a contender for a spot at the bottom of Tier 2. Thanks to a dominant (71.7%) matchup against Face Hunter, the archetype should fare particularly well in the lower meta, so long as you’re able to dodge a few Quest Resurrect Priests along the way. 

Higher on the ladder, a strong winrate against Highlander Galakrond Rogue looks promising, but our expectations should be tempered by the corollary increase in Galakrond Warrior, a deck to which Uther loses about 59% of the time. 

Thus far, Dragon Paladin, both in Highlander and non-Highlander variants, looks to be a disaster, fit only for placement in Tier 4. Our featured build borrows from the Mech theme that has brought Paladin so much success over the years, but don’t hold your breath; there’s absolutely no chance of this archetype taking off in the near future. 

With a dramatic reduction in Galakrond Shaman observed across the meta, Holy Wrath Paladin’s stock has fallen considerably over the past week. From a peak representation of 5.39% between ranks five and Legend, Holy Wrath has dropped to a playrate of 1.31%, a trend reflecting the fact that, outside of Thrall, the archetype has few good matchups in the contemporary meta. Nor does the future look much better. Holy Wrath Paladin crumbles in the face of both Galakrond Warrior (39.7% winrate) and Highlander Galakrond Rogue (27.2%). 

Priest

Last week, Priest seemed destined for the dumpster. Galakrond Priest was (and continues to be) an unmitigated disaster, the victim of, if nothing else, poor game design. And despite a positive matchup against Deathrattle Rogue, the class’ stalwart companion, Aggro Combo Priest, had already been driven from the meta by Galakrond Shaman. Nothing was going right. 

Then everything changed. Face Hunter arrived like a breath of fresh air. Finally, Quest Resurrect Priest had a reason to exist. But it did far more than exist; it flourished. Thanks to an 80.7% winrate against Rexxar, Quest Resurrect Priest has returned to the meta in full force. 

Thankfully, every recent meta development has, thus far, been met by pushback from another quarter; the influx of Priest on the lower ladder has led to a resurgence in Highlander strategies. 

Priest is vulnerable to continual pressure in the mid-to-late game, making a Highlander package led by the powerful Dragonqueen Alexstrasza a viable counter. Alongside Highlander Mage, which crushes Priest with a winrate above 66%, Highlander Galakrond Rogue has emerged as a natural check on Priest’s power. The overwhelming presence of Rogue at Legend is a key reason why Priest’s playrate falls to a mere 3.27% at the game’s highest rank. 

Even so, Quest Resurrect Priest looks pretty good. Strong late-game decks like Galakrond Shaman and Highlander Galakrond Rogue stomp it into oblivion, but the Resurrect archetype is bonkers against Galakrond Warrior (65.7% winrate over 21,000 games between five and Legend), a deck that has taken on an outsized role across the upper meta. With Tempo Galakrond Warrior on the ascendant, and Face Hunter continuing to comprise about 8% of the meta, Quest Resurrect Priest looks poised to feast for the foreseeable future. 

Galakrond Priest is pitiful, the Plot Twist Warlock of Descent of Dragons. But to the archetype’s credit, it’s being pulled in many different directions at once, clouding the numbers and preventing us from drawing any hard conclusions. 

From preliminary numbers, the Leeroy Jenkins / Grave Rune variant seems to be a dud, posting a meager winrate of 45.9%. It’s a seductive concept, though, and at a 1,600 game sample size, we need more data to properly evaluate it. 

In actuality, the Bad Luck Albatross variant (which plays no Invoke cards) has shown the most promise. At least it’s the only version to boast a positive winrate, thanks to what appears to be an outstanding matchup against Galakrond Warrior. 

Rogue

While Deathrattle Rogue took center stage immediately before the Shaman nerfs, Highlander Galakrond Rogue may prove the stronger deck in the end. It’s an exciting and versatile addition to Valeera’s repertoire, featuring a diverse array of powerful packages, including a Deathrattle theme (both Anubisath Warbringer and Mechanical Whelp), Invoke activators, a Lackey package headlined by Heistbaron Togwaggle, the usual Highlander payoff cards and a smattering of classic Rogue tempo cards. 

Highlander Galakrond Rogue is capable of insane tempo swings; just imagine pulling a 0-mana Dragonqueen Alexstrasza off of Wondrous Wand. Rogue is also the class best-equipped to abuse Dragonqueen Alexstrasza. With EVIL Miscreant and Galakrond’s Battlecry, it’s not difficult to generate multiple Draconic Lackeys, all of which can constitute a second bite at the Alexstrasza apple. 

When it comes to the mid-to-late game, the archetype can pull off obscene mana-cheating, but the deck’s power comes from the fact that you only need to hit one of your many packages to pop off. If the draw fits, you can play as Deathrattle Rogue, or pump out a magnificent Edwin VanCleef with all of your free cards. And you’ll never run out of resources; outside of Cyclone Mage, no deck in the meta generates random cards like this one. 

Over the first two weeks of serious play, Highlander Galakrond Rogue has displayed a balanced matchup spread, beating up on the format’s unoptimized lists while holding ground against the meta’s new powerhouses. It’s fundamentally weak to pure aggro, with losing matchups against Face Hunter and Pirate Warrior, but possesses sufficient late-game threats to burst through the defenses of the format’s value-oriented decks, including Handlock, Highlander Mage and Quest Resurrect Priest. 

As always, there’s cause for concern. Galakrond Shaman is a losing matchup (48.7%), and we expect Thrall to increase in numbers. The true problem for Rogue, however, may come in the form of Garrosh. At the moment, Valeera enjoys an even matchup against Galakrond Warrior, but that’s only because so many Warrior players are sticking to the archetype’s control variant. In reality, Valeera loses consistently (45% winrate over 2,600 games between five and Legend) to the tempo build of Galakrond Warrior. If the archetype increases in popularity, as we expect, it could be rough sailing ahead for our pirate princess. 

In any event, Highlander Galakrond Rogue will certainly prove more popular than Deathrattle Rogue; it’s already experienced explosive growth over the past two weeks, a trend that shows no sign of letting up. Behind only Galakrond Warrior, Valeera’s singleton archetype is now the second most popular deck in the upper meta and, at nearly 18% of the format, the most popular deck at Legend. 

Deathrattle Rogue remains a significant force in the meta, but its relative power has decreased substantially with the drop in Galakrond Shaman. The archetype now commands around 5.5% of the upper meta, but the most popular build, which features two copies of Necrium Vial, is far too slow for the format. Face Hunter is still a major problem, but the deck’s chances against other aggro archetypes can be greatly improved by adopting the optimized list pioneered by J_Alexander, which highlights Magic Carpet for scalable board control. 

Despite the decline in Shaman, our optimized Deathrattle Rogue has earned a top spot in Tier 2, thanks to an excellent matchup spread against both aggro and control. The deck is only weak to Face Hunter, with winning matchups against Quest Resurrect Priest, Galakrond Shaman, Highlander Galakrond Rogue and Galakrond Warrior. 

Shaman

Galakrond Shaman remains a significant force at higher ranks, but the nerfs, along with the continued prominence of Face Hunter, have hurt the archetype’s stock in the lower meta. At Legend, Galakrond Shaman accounts for nearly 9% of the format, but the proportion drops consistently to reach a meager 5.74% at rank five. We can now see that Team 5’s last round of nerfs were a resounding success, both limiting Galakrond Shaman’s considerable power and scaring many players away from the archetype, allowing other decks to flourish.    

But don’t let any of these facts fool you. Galakrond Shaman is still extremely powerful, especially at Legend, where more players have begun to run tech choices that improve the deck’s winrate against Face Hunter (which is a losing matchup between ranks five and one, but a winning matchup at Legend). In fact, it may still be the case, given the archetype’s outstanding matchup spread, that Galakrond Shaman remains the strongest deck in the game. It is, at the very least, a contender for the top spot in Tier 1 alongside Galakrond Warrior. 

Galakrond Shaman still wins against everything. As before, the deck’s sole weakness is Holy Wrath Paladin, an archetype to which Shaman loses in about 41.5% of cases (over a sample of 22,000 games between five and Legend). Quest Hunter continues to fare well against Galakrond Shaman at lower ranks, but the matchup flips at Legend, becoming a positive for Thrall. 

Even the meta’s new powerhouses, Highlander Galakrond Rogue and Galakrond Warrior, are no match for Shaman. While each matchup is competitive, Galakrond Shaman manages to carry the day against both Valeera (51% winrate) and Garrosh (51.5% winrate). As much as we hate to say it, if you want to win in today’s meta, you should probably be playing Galakrond Shaman. And don’t worry much about your sole counter: Holy Wrath Paladin’s playrate has cratered over the past week. 

Aggro Overload Shaman hasn’t fared particularly well since the balance changes, in large part because the nerfs weakened its own early game (Sludge Slurper and one of its biggest power plays Mogu Fleshshaper. The deck has also suffered from Face Hunter’s success, which put healing and Taunt back on the menu, empowering a difficult matchup in Quest Resurrect Priest. 

As it stands, Aggro Overload Shaman is stuck in the middle of Tier 2. Most builds have converged around a Spirit of the Frog package that draws into Earthen Might (for Surging Tempest), then Lava Burst. Out of the variants with sufficient sample size to evaluate, we’re featuring the highest winrate version, but removed the unbelievably-slow Squallhunter in exchange for Electra Stormsurge, allowing us to double our reach for less mana. 

Things going forward appear decidedly mixed for the archetype, if not outright bad. On the one hand, Aggro Overload Shaman has gained a positive matchup in Highlander Galakrond Rogue, an archetype with exploding popularity that accounts for around 17% of the upper meta. On the other, Thrall must contend with Galakrond Warrior, which has proven a pitiful matchup so far; over 3,000 games between five and Legend, Thrall has managed to win only 36% against Garrosh, who can easily out-armor the Shaman’s reach.  

Warlock

Descent of Dragons has reinvigorated two of the oldest Warlock archetypes, Handlock and Zoo, bringing powerful new options to the table. 

Despite the lower power level of Galakrond, the Wretched, Galakrond Zoo Warlock has performed well so far, earning a spot in the middle of Tier 2. That’s not particularly surprising given that the meta is still overrun by unoptimized lists. 

Aggro decks tend to prey on sub-optimal builds, and Galakrond Zoo Warlock is no exception, crushing the likes of Embiggen Druid and Galakrond Priest. For the most part, lists closer to optimization are more of a struggle, but Zoo always has the potential to overrun slower decks, even a powerhouse like Galakrond Shaman, to which Zoo loses in only 52% of cases. That’s pretty good, considering the amount of rushing bodies Shaman can generate. 

Galakrond Zoo Warlock is well-positioned to take advantage of the meta’s new powerhouses, including Quest Resurrect Priest (52.6% winrate) and Highlander Galakrond Rogue (56.3%), but cracks in the veneer could form around Galakrond Warrior. This is a poor matchup, especially against the archetype’s tempo variant, one which Zoo has lost in about 59% of cases (over 15,000 games played between five and Legend). Even so, the continued prominence of Highlander Galakrond Rogue should keep Zoo afloat for the foreseeable future.  

Due to a number of sub-optimal lists muddying the numbers, Handlock is a better deck than it appears to be. In the premier variants, Malygos is king, amplifying Warlock’s substantial burn, including the outstanding new spell Nether Breath. 

Descent of Dragons has opened up an array of new possibilities for Handlock. Dark Skies has proven a strong answer to early-game board states, while Crazed Netherwing, as the name suggests, is straight up insane. In pumping up Twilight Drakes, cheating out Mountain Giant and locating additional answers, Valdris Felgorge could be considered a win condition on his own. 

In our featured build, we’ve opted for consistency (in contrast to the ladder’s most popular list), by doubling up on Abyssal Summoner and Sunfury Protector, ensuring we have the resources to conquer the board after our early-game stall turns. We’re also leaning into the archetype’s capacity for burst finishes by including Leeroy Jenkins. 

Warrior

The most popular deck between ranks five and one, Galakrond Warrior is already a juggernaut, representing about 14% of the upper meta, but it would be a mistake to consider this archetype as a monolith. Indeed, Galakrond Warrior is in a state of flux, with both control and tempo variants vying for supremacy in their respective stages of optimization. 

By raw numbers, the control build of Galakrond Warrior, which features Shield Slam and Brawl, is still far more popular than the tempo variant, but the tides appear to be shifting. Demonstrating serious potential, the tempo build is swiftly rising in popularity. 

Centered around Armorsmith and the now-classic Leeroy Jenkins / Inner Rage / Bloodsworn Mercenary burst combo, we believe this list is powerful enough to take a top spot in Tier 1. 

Meanwhile, the control variant of Galakrond Warrior seems to be losing steam, with declines in both playrate and winrate over the past week. 

These trends are fairly easy to explain. While both variants of Galakrond Warrior feature a similar matchup spread, the tempo variant appears to be in a better spot for the current state of the meta. We expect this deck to climb in representation at the highest ranks, especially Legend, where Garrosh should be able to feast on the glut of Highlander Galakrond Rogues. 

Despite lacking the defensive tools of its control-minded counterpart, Tempo Galakrond Warrior is able to accumulate obscene amounts of armor through Armorsmith, creating sufficient defenses to withstand the barrage of Face Hunters, Galakrond Zoo Warlocks and Pirate Warriors between ranks three and one. Both variations on Galakrond Warrior are pitiful against Priest, but by exploiting sneaky Leeroy-led OTK potential, the tempo build fares better in the matchup, edging out the control variant by nearly 3 percentage points. If that isn’t enough, Tempo Galakrond Warrior also fares better in the losing matchup against Galakrond Shaman. 

The real difference between the decks, however, becomes clear in the Highlander Galakrond Rogue matchup. While Control Galakrond Warrior is competitive against Valeera, the variant ultimately stumbles, with a slightly-negative winrate of 49.7% (over 2,400 games between five and Legend). The tempo variant, on the other hand, excels in the matchup, with a 54.6% winrate over the course of 2,200 games played between five and Legend. 

Considering that Highlander Galakrond Rogue is the most popular deck at Legend, Tempo Galakrond Warrior should shine in the upper echelons of play. This insight is made all the stronger by the fact that, at Legend, Quest Resurrect Priest falls to a measly playrate of 3.47%, far lower than the 8% playrate observed between ranks five and one. 

Pirate Warrior has staked out a nice spot for itself as one of the meta’s faster options, becoming the premier aggro strategy outside of Face Hunter. The archetype comprises around 6% of the upper meta, but becomes most prominent at rank one, where it currently controls over 7.5% of the format. On its own, Pirate Warrior dominates entire classes, most notably Hunter, Mage and Rogue, but falls flat against mid-game powerhouses like Galakrond Shaman and Handlock. 

Most Pirate Warrior variants have converged around a build that exploits the natural synergy between Pirates and weaponry, pairing Southsea Deckhand and Hoard Pillager with the likes of Ancharrr, Livewire Lance and Arcanite Reaper. Kor'kron Elite and Leeroy Jenkins provide the usual burst, while Restless Mummy helps to bust through Taunt minions. 

Our featured build includes Southsea Captain, a card that seems to have been cut from many lists over the last week. That appears to be a mistake; Captain performs well, both as a board-wide buff and soft taunt, and features one of the deck’s highest drawn winrates. We’ve removed one Hoard Pillager to make room. While this omission cuts down on our consistency over multiple games, we want to win before we have to play two Pillagers.

As a final note, variations on Pirate Warrior that include a Galakrond package appear, at this stage, far inferior to the lean consistency of straight-up Pirate Warrior builds. When these decks win, and they do, they do so because of the Pirate package, not because they are Invoking Galakrond. If you want to win, stick with Pirate Warrior, the clean version.  

This week, we saw the continued impact of Hearthstone's fastest-ever balance patch, a set of nerfs that brought Highlander Galakrond Rogue and Galakrond Warrior to the forefront. What do you think of the meta? Is the Standard format diverse enough? Let us know in the comments!